(Sudbury – 5 October 2017)

The Laurentian University Faculty Association (LUFA) will be welcoming labour leaders and representatives from across Canada to a rally at the university’s main gate on Friday, October 6, at 11:30 am.

Professors and librarians at Laurentian will be joined on the picket line by local union leaders (including from community colleges and the Sudbury and District Labour Council), fly-in pickets from university faculty associations across Canada, and national labour leaders including James Compton (President, Canadian Association of University Teachers) and Marie Clarke-Walker (Secretary-Treasurer, Canadian Labour Congress).

LUFA members have been on the picket line since Sept. 28. The union’s previous contract with the university’s board of governors expired on June 30.

University administrators are seeking rollbacks such as making professors teach outside their areas of expertise and punishing individuals with heavier teaching workloads.

LUFA is on strike to:

• sustain a quality learning environment for students by optimizing faculty time spent with them and by engaging with them daily in their own knowledge acquisition and critical thinking
• create an open and transparent university experience for students and faculty, alike

“Our members teach and educate the next generation of citizens,” says LUFA President Jim Ketchen. “We provide research for mining, the environment, health and safety, and how to better plan and run our cities. We also lead community programs and play an active role in making Sudbury and Northern Ontario a better place to live.”

He added: “Pledges of support from the labour community will play a key role in persuading the administration to settle and enable our faculty to return to what they do best – teaching and research.”

We ask students to support Laurentian’s faculty members by attending the rally this Friday. And help us to protect our university by sending a letter to the university administration: bit.ly/lusolidarity